If there is an all‐out gang war in Brooklyn between the Gallo and Colombo groups, as the number of bullet‐riddled bodies over the last few days has led the police to suggest, both sides have the men and the guns to make it the bloodiest internal Mafia conflict in many years.

A check of the committed members of the two sides as listed in a report compiled by the intelligence division of the Police Department shows that there are 118 members of the group headed by Joseph A. Col ombo Sr. and 85 in the group that was led by Joseph Gallo. Colombo was shot in the head nearly a year ago and has not recovered; Gallo was shot to death Friday morning.

The Gallo group, although outnumbered, includes men with more “war” experience than the Colombo group. Some of these have the capacity to provide the strong leadership lost to the group with the mur der of Gallo.

The experienced Gallo men are veterans of the Profaci Gallo “war” in the early nine teen‐sixties. In that conflict, which resulted in a dozen mur ders, a faction led by Larry, Joseph and Albert Gallo re belled against their Mafia “family” then headed by Joseph Profaci over division of the family profits.
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Profaci Men Sidelined

Colombo took over the Pro faci family in 1964 and con cluded a peace with the Gallo group. But to secure his posi tion as leader, Colombo side lined many of the men who had been close to Profaci during the war and replaced them with less experienced younger men loyal to him.

Since last June, when Colom bo was critically wounded at Columbus Circle, none of these young men has been able to give the family strong leader ship.

Joseph Yacovelli and later Vincent Aloi are reported to have tried serving as acting heads of the family, but with limited success. Neither has the experience or the temperament to be a wartime leader, accord ing to law‐enforcement of ficials.

The one who did have the qualifications is Carmine Per sico, who started serving a 14‐ year Federal prison term 10 weeks ago for hijacking.

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Persico was one of the most daring front‐line lieutenants for Profaci in the war against the Gallos a decade ago. He is now in the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta, and prison records show he has kept close tabs on recent developments in Brook lyn.
The records show that in the last three weeks his brother, Alphonse, who is listed by the police as a Colombo family member, and his chief lieuten ant, Jerry Langella, have visit ed Persico at the prison four times.

Persico's cellmate at Atlanta is Hugh Mcintosh, who was convicted with him in the hi jacking case and stood with him in the last war with the Gallos.

The visits to Atlanta have led law‐enforcement officials to speculate that Persico and Mc Intosh may be offering some long‐distance direction to less experienced Colombo men back home.

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There is also the possibility that in the event of all‐out wart sonic of the old Profaci captains sidelined by Colombo would come back and assume com mand positions. These have been identified by the police as Harry Fontana, John Oddo and Salvatore Mussachio.

Gallo Group's Strength

On the other side, the Gallo group is missing two of the three Gallo brothers (Larry died of cancer in 1968) but is still strong enough to cause a lot of damage. In fact the group can count on 30 more men now than the 55 it had in the war 10 years ago.

Albert Gallo, the surviving Gallo brother, is not considered as aggressive as Larry and Joseph were but is said to be smarter than either of them.

He is also supported by 25 or so veterans of the war of a decade ago. The most formid able is John Cutrone. 51 years old, who has a long arrest rec ord but no major convictions. Officials believe he would take command of the Gallo group in the event of all‐out hostilities.
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Such a war could possibly be avoided through the inter vention of Mafia leaders such as Carlo Gambino or Thomas Deli. But they would involve themselves only if invited in as Imediators.

Mediation Tradition

Under Mafia tradition a con flict within a family is off‐lim its to other families except on invitation to serve as peace makers.

The force of this tradition was illustrated in the Gallo‐Pro faci war. Aniello Dellacroce, said to be Gambino's under boss, at one point in the con flict seemed to be advising Pro faci lieutenants.

On hearing of this, Joseph Gallo sought out Dellacroce and, finding him in the Little Italy section, punched him in the eye. But Gambino did not order any punishment for Gallo for striking his underboss be cause Dellacroce had breached Mafia tradition in siding with Profaci.

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Later, however, Raymond Patriarca, the reputed Mafia boss of New England, was in vited by both sides to medi ate the conflict and played a key role in bringing it to an end.

There is a possibility that someone of similar standing may be asked to come in as a mediator between the Gallo and Colombo groups before full scale war breaks out because such conflicts invite unwelcome attention to all Mafia activities.

Gambino, reputed boss of the biggest New York family, would be the likely choice for such a role, but he is suffering from a heart condition and may not be up to it.